Text-Based Google Directions | Hacker News Reader

Text-Based Google Directions

gdir.telae.net

Reminds me of GOOG-411! Used to use that all the time back in the day before I got a smart phone. https://youtu.be/J937N9m-XtE?si=-rsbP3Nm6GRGpZGQ&t=185

GOOG-411 was insanely cool.

A minimalistic directions service aimed at users of feature phones/dumb phones, terminal-based browsers, low-bandwidth connections, screen readers etc. Best suited for public transport directions. No JavaScript requirements.

As the developer of an app that uses SMS as a transport medium for a WebView "browser" UI [1], I'm very appreciative of Peter Foster for hosting this service! The site design is highly compressible and text is kept to a minimum - you can usually get directions in just a few texts.

[1] https://github.com/lukeaschenbrenner/TxtNet-Browser

This takes me back to the MapQuest era, printing out directions and reading them while driving.

Competitor MapBlast's 'LineDrive' directions were my favorite printable option – both the abstract overview and the turn-by-turn abstract clips.

https://somethingaboutmaps.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/remember...

Exactly my thought. MapQuest had a big print button for A to B directions in the late 90s, before Google even existed. I can't find the print button anywhere on their site today.

https://web.archive.org/web/20000229210717/http://www.mapque...

As someone who is currently enamored with Meshtastic devices, several of which have built in GPS, this is making me wonder of future iterations of the software and being able to somehow utilize the directions on the mesh.

I really like this.

One note to the developer (could not find contact info):

The country list dropdown shows Taiwan as "Taiwan, Province of China". This is probably accidental as likely from another source, but could need some review.

Many thanks for the feedback and for flagging this up. I've tweaked the drop-down.

That's a can of worms (along with the northern border of India and everything between Lebanon and Egypt) that will get you a million angry emails no matter what you do.

Taiwan is a country. This is not some contested area but well established 80+ years old government with strong ties to NATO etc. No single CCP Soldier or clerk out there. Pure Independent nation

Well, no, it's very much a contested area, with a neighboring nuclear-armed power claiming it is not independent, a nuclear-armed global hegemon very deliberately being ambiguous in its statements about Taiwan's status, limited diplomatic recognition, and no UN membership. It's literally anything but simple or cut-and-dry.

CCP has zero clerks, soldiers or government buildings in Taiwan or anything at all. That's the prime indicator that Taiwan is as much Independent from China as from India or UK :)

Goverment+ people+ 100% control over it's territory.

Sounds like proper COUNTRY for me :)

Similar just based on open source + open data https://social.tchncs.de/@Jbb/116082509413974306

it would be fun to use AI to change this to 1990s directions like "Make a left at Eastside high, drive until you see taco bell, turn right down the alley , i'm the 3rd garage with the blue door".

hey guys. love the service. paypal donations are down. wanted to donate and couldn't. just a heads up.

Gmaps api is pricy, hopefully this doesn’t go super viral or the dev will have a big bill to pay

Developer here. Thanks for all the kind feedback!

How exactly does this work? Does it use Gmaps API?

Yes, to self-host it you will need a Google maps API key.

In the related links at the bottom, https://gdir.telae.net/links.html, the Git repo https://github.com/pafoster/gdir.telae.net is available along with some other cool things.

Very Nice, this is very much needed

Love this! Thank you

Very cool

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